Illinois voters pay attention! The Democrats running Illinois should learn how to run a state from their neighbor to the north: Wisconsin. Democrats have firm, veto-proof control on the Illinois state legislature. The state’s Budget gap could hit $9.4 billion in 2016 without tax hikes. And all the Chicago Democrat Machine and collar county Democrats can do is find ways to raise taxes and drive thousands of small businesses and blue collar workers out of the state because they no longer can afford to live in Illinois.

And then there’s the TEA Party conservative governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker.Remember Walker, he’s the guy the Democrat party and the labor unions twice tried to force him from office through ill-conceived recalls? Bruce Rauner, anyone?

Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin stopped just short of taking victory laps around the halls of the state Capitol last week after the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projected a $1.04 billion general fund surplus over the two budget years.

This news comes just six months after Gov. Scott Walker signed the second Republican-led budget in his tenure. While unpopular with Democrats, Walker’s fiscal reforms continue to pay dividends to state taxpayers.

Lawmakers now routinely debate how to cut taxes instead of how to raise more revenue, something unthinkable just three years ago when the state faced a $3.6 billion budget deficit.

The state’s overall fiscal health is reflected in a new study ranking Wisconsin 17th among the 50 states. The study by Sarah Arnett, an economist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, puts the Badger State ahead of Iowa (18th), Michigan (30th), Minnesota (35th) and Illinois (48th).

Wisconsin ranked fourth in the country in “budget solvency,” far ahead of fifth place Utah on the index, one of Arnett’s four measures of overall fiscal condition. Wisconsin ended fiscal 2013 with a $760 million surplus.